Please watch this TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Please share one or two takeaways from the talk. Also, please share if this talk inspired you to look at your literacy narrative differently in any way. Your response should be four to seven sentences long.
18 thoughts on “Blog Post #3: The Danger of a Single Story”
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“The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how are different rather than how we are similar.” I really agree with this quote because stereotypes happen in our society. People hear about one single story and believe that is generally true. However the single story is not always a true story. The stereotype makes people misunderstand others. I realize that when I write my literacy narrative I should write my story more comprehensive and focus on the essence of the story.
One of my takeaways from watching the ted talk was about how from an young age, we have this idea or concept of certain groups of people because of the way that the media only portrays a single story or narrative, without seeing the bigger picture. When Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie mentioned her trip about going to Mexico and having this one single idea about Mexicans being synonymous with immigration. This resonated with me since I’m Mexican American, and I think about do people have this single idea of me being associated with illegal immigration. I was also able to relate to her experience with her roommate and it made me think back to my own experience, with how one of my friends thought that my Dad couldn’t speak English even though he was born and raised in the United States. Another one of my takeaways from the ted talk was that when people reject the idea of a single story and include the positive stories as well, then it gives a sense of power back to that group of people. At first I wasn’t sure if this inspired me to look at my literacy narrative differently until I realized that my literacy narrative was a story about my culture and it had the power to bring a new story forward.
What I took away from this Ted Talk is that what we see on the surface isn’t always the truth. We see Africa as a poor country because of how it’s perceived in the media, but Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, coming from an African country has proven otherwise. Even her stereotyped opinion on Mexico and the perception of them being immigrants and wanting to come to America for better opportunities was fed to her because of what we hear from the media. There’s always more to a situation than what we can see on the surface level. Looking back at my narrative I think I need to dig deeper than the surface because in my narrative I’m only scraping the surface of my struggle and how hard it was for me than I am in explaining how I overcame it and bettered myself.
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” I agree with this sentence very much. Stereotypes imprison people’s thinking and people may make wrong reactions. This video inspired me not to consider only one aspect when writing. I should write from multiple angles to make my story more reality.
This video acted almost like a wake-up call for me. If it wasn’t for Chimamanda Adichie’s anecdote about her roommate knowing the only story about Africa being a “catastrophe”, I may not realize that I, too, only knew this story. Having never educating myself about the culture and depth of the various countries in Africa, I limited myself news about Africa’s poverty. This is a problem for almost everyone in society, making assumptions based on the small grasp of news that is given (emphasize on word) to us, mostly by higher-ups. In a sense, we are falling into politics traps by only believing in the blow-up news of an incomplete vision of others and their societies.
This makes me think that I should look back to my literary narrative to see if I limited myself to understanding American culture and/or limit readers of my narrative in understanding Chinese culture through my perception.
Something that I took away from this video was how easily a person can be shaped by what other people tell us and the stereotypes of society. Throughout the video, Adichie mentions many different scenarios on how she and other people’s only perception of a person were based on what society and people had told them. A specific example would be how her roommate in college immediately expected Adichie to speak broken English, to listen to “tribal” music, and to not know how to work a stove. Another occasion would be when Adichie’s perception of Fide was solely based on what her mother had told her, which was not 100% correct.
This talk has inspired me to look at my literacy narrative differently, in a way where I acknowledge those in my story’s perspective, not just my own. I realized what a hard time I put my parents through.
One takeaway after watching the TED talk was how writing creates stereotypes and how stereotypes affect people’s views on certain groups and the consequence of stereotype is unexpected. I was resonated with this quotation, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” It inspired me to look at my literacy narrative in a different way such as I can also write about how people see about Chinese people. People believe that Chinese people are good at math. Actually, it’s not totally wrong since the education system in China does put a lot of attention on math, and it’s true that many Chinese have talent in math, but the whole picture is not all the Chinese people are good at math.
In this video, Chimamanda Adichie tells us how to form stereotypes to a person, group, or region by many examples. Just write a single story in our writing. In the story about Fied’s family, she believed all words from her mom. However, her mom just told the single piece of information about Fieds. She would never know the Fied’s family are working hard for their life if she didn’t visit their village. This also tells me to view a thing in many ways. The most things that I see just surfaces. It is real but may be incomplete. If I can write my literacy narrative in a different view, it can make my story more trustful and avoid forming stereotypes.
One take away is like “don’t judge a book by its cover” it is like don’t judge a person before you get to know them. I feel that everyone has a point a view about a race, gender, or culture before they get to know them. Some people can read one article about a certain race and that will be what they associated with that race until they learn otherwise. This story reminded me of a time when I was at school, one of my classmates expect me to know an answer for the question in math class. I didn’t know the answer. “Your Asian you are supposed to know the answer,” said the classmate. The stereotype of Asian being smart only in math. While I am good at math doesn’t mean I was any better than my classmate. Stereotype can easily shape someone’s’ opinion. This Ted talk inspired me to go back to narrative and look at it from a different point of view.
After I watched the TED Talk, I learned multiple things from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. One of which caught my attention was when she talked about how easily children could be influenced by what they had been exposed to. I truly understand this because of how I was taught when I was a child. Adults always talked about how Africa was in deep poverty, and that the people who lived there were uneducated, hungry, and violent, which I later found it to be inauthentic because Africans could be wealthy, well-educated, and gentle.
Later, when she talked about the single-story and how it formed stereotypes all around us, I could not agree more with her because people should realize that we are the existence of complexity instead of flat characters. We are not just good or bad, white or black, yet, we are formed by many stories around us. All these stories and life experiences make up people’s identity just like what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said in the TED Talk. One thing people should always keep in mind is that we need to observe others from multiple perspectives to know them because a single person does not ultimately represent the entire ethnic group or population.
I learned from this talk that I should put in stories from various aspects of my life for my literacy narrative so that the readers can understand the complexity behind my use of language as well as my identities.
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” I found this quote interesting because there’re many stereotypes in society and many are untrue. I agree with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie because of stereotypes are often over-generalized, meaning vague statements without proven or valid evidence. People tend to hear one side of the story and then jump to the conclusion. This inspired me to look at my literacy narrative differently because I need to consider every aspect or view of the story instead of one “single story.” A literacy narrative is a story about me and I need to make sure that my literacy narrative is clear, specific, and to the point. By doing so, I can show my readers my true identity and understand my view through my perception.
I really agree with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie when she concludes that if you start from a different story, you get a different perspective. In my highschool Turning Points class, we used this Ted Talk to justify how stories of history are markers of turning points and when you tell it from another perspective, the story you hear will be totally different. And now that I watched this again, but for English class, her same point makes me think more thoughtfully about stories and writers. While every writer has their own stories to tell, the different words and languages they used, convey different messages for different readers even despite reading the same text. Thus, it makes me wonder that for my literacy narrative, when I use numbers (age) to let my audience understand and follow my thoughts of growth over time, maybe my audience would not see it in the same way. Perhaps, I will have to tell it in a more direct perspective to help the audience understand my mood and the purpose. So, just like how words can have multiple meanings, my stories can convey different meanings and if I want my reader to understand exactly what I’m going for, I think I should reconsider how I put my words to bring about a clearer perspective of my story for the audience.
When she said “single stories create stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, is that they are incomplete.” I could agree more.I have been judged because of people believe that all Dominicans are loud and do not value education as much, they feel surprised about me been interested in my education because they have read or seem few cases where Dominicans do not want to study. Also, this Ted Talk made me realize that it is important to see the whole truth and examine a few points of view first before creating an image of something or someone. Finally, it inspired me to write the truth and not what people are expecting to read because if all writers fail to depict the reality of what they are writing, all readers will have a single story of everything which will create stereotypes.
Chimamanda is a story teller, in the TED Talk she talked about a couple stories of her life. One takeaway was that when she discovered about African writers, she felt the hope for her color and race. She says she never thought her color would be writers. This is the point that I remember because I never thought someone would think no one in their race could be something. Another takeaway is Chimamanda’s impression to Fide’s family. She describes this impression similar to white’s on black’s. This made me quite uncomfortable. There is a lot of racial and social equality discussed throughout the TED Talk. I don’t like how the racial impression on Chimamanda is strong, makes me uncomfortable.
A takeaway that I got from Chimamanda’s TED Talk was that single stories create stereotypes, and it’s incomplete. I agree with the fact that single stories are like small fragments of the whole. People shouldn’t judge based on one single story. It makes me reflect on how single stories impact my view. It makes me feel bad about how I view things because I am basing it off a single story. What I view can just be a single story, but I should change it so I can see the whole. It makes me think about what she said at the end, “when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.” If only many stories were created about each place or more context would be added to each story then such stereotypes wouldn’t be so significant on people’s views. No country or people would be viewed as less or more but rather equal. This talk inspired me to include more details in my story, both good and bad, not just the basic struggle so I can make it my story and my view.
One takeaway I got from the Ted Talk was about her story mostly being filled with positives. She writes about the characters who live in a culture that is mostly positive. The point is how does one write a story like some form struggle without experiencing one? In some way, I can relate. She said a story has power, meaning a perspective of struggle. She responds back by saying how the little struggles can mean something, to make a story.
Through Chimamanda’s TED Talk, one takeaway that I got is how single stories could affect people’s judges on something or someone. Since I’m from a different religion I could understand that feeling better than the people who have not yet traveled to another country. Single stories are normally from only one perspective which could mislead people to think that they are generally true. Since they are always one narrative, people without exploring more for themselves would easily get influenced and believe what the stories stated. This reminds me that in the future when I write literacy stories, I should look into more perspectives and try to avoid my own bias in order to focus on the main idea of the story.
After I watched the video, there are two details that impressed me. The first one is the single store about Fide, the house boy who works for the author’s family. The author never knows that Fide and his family have a great life skill before she went to his house. Because she only heard Fide’s single-story from her mother, which is Fide and his family is really poor. The only label given to Fide by the author is poverty then nothing else. The second detail is when the author came to the United State for her college, her roommate’s initial impression of her. The facts are completely different from the single-story that her roommate knows. Those facts told us about how single-story affect our life. I realized that everything in this world all has two sides. We tend to believe only what others want us to believe, but this is only a single side. As the author said, we have lost the balance of the story. This inspired me to pay more attention to the versatility of the story in my future writing. Learn more about the truth instead of just writing what we think.